Boost for local museums after successful funding bid

As part of a national funding initiative the Arts Council England has granted £1.4m to be used to provide professional advice and support to help more than 300 museums across the South East.

The Museum Development Fund will provide professional advice to all museums, but will concentrate on supporting smaller museums to enable them to be more innovative and to assist them in reaching out to more people.

The fund will provide support in a wide range of areas including business planning and enterprise, workforce development, attracting new audiences and organisational improvement.

There are 40 museums in this county, including the county council-operated Oxfordshire Museum in Woodstock.  Support will be targeted particularly at the smaller museums to assist them in improving their resilience and sustainability to maximise the benefits to visitors and local communities.

Joint bid

The Arts Council England bid was developed and will now be delivered by the following key museum partners: the Oxford Aspire Consortium of Oxford University Museums and Oxfordshire County Council’s Museums Service; Hampshire County Council Arts and Museums supported by the Hampshire Solent Alliance, Chatham Historic Dockyard and The Kent-Medway Museum Partnership.

Museums within the partnership will work collaboratively using a network of Museum Development Officers to provide advice and support to other museums.

Councillor Judith Heathcoat, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Safer and Stronger Communities, said: “I am delighted that the joint bid was successful and I know that staff in our museums service are looking forward to collaborating further with colleagues in the South East to help develop museums across the region.”